After receiving pressure from student representatives at the public forum held last week to discuss proposed changes to the Madison bus system, Madison Metro Transit System opened up its second meeting Wednesday night to student input.
University of Wisconsin Transportation Services Director Patrick Kass and Colin Conn, the schedule planner for Madison Metro, presented the forum’s participants with five potential changes to the current bus schedule.
Kass said a combination of some of these potential alternatives needs to be made to decrease the structural deficit of $1 million on which UW Transportation Services is currently operating. He said the goal is to cut the service of the campus busing by 10 percent, which would mean a decrease in 3,200 hours of bus service annually.
“As we looked at what programs or routes we wanted to consider cutting, we looked at what our ridership was for each of our routes to understand how much and how often they were being used,” Kass said. “Our goal is to impact the fewest number of people we possibly can.”
Conn said the first alternative included a removal of one of the buses working the 81 route, which would cut 1,700 hours of service and switch the wait time for the bus from 15 minutes to 30.
This alternative was met with opposition from some attendees, who were concerned with the safety of UW students and Madison’s residents.
Laura Checovich, a Student Transportation Board member, said a top priority for students is safety, for which the buses play a big role.
“Making sure people get home safe is our No. 1 concern,” Checovich said. “However, it’s not necessarily the walk home that is a problem, it’s the wait for a bus.”
For these reasons, Checovich said she opposes any cuts made to the 81 route, which students use for safe transportation at night.
Conn presented numerous other alternatives, including eliminating one bus on the 85 route after 10 a.m., eliminating one of the buses on the 80 route completely, doing a combination of the 80 and 85 routes that will use fewer buses and revising route 80 during times of recess, such as winter and spring breaks, when school is not in session.
Of the above alternatives, the changes to route 80, including the reduction of bus services during recess periods by 1,219 hours, were met with the greatest opposition by attendees.
Opposition was also raised to changes to the 80 route because its buses are already facing capacity issues on a daily basis, making travel on the buses difficult. As a result of these issues, individuals are often left at stops because the bus is already full.
Paul Evans, the director of housing at UW, said changes would have major effects on Madison residents who do not leave the city during recess times, especially residents of the Eagle Heights area.
“Eagle Heights is 365 days per year,” Evans said. “It is mostly grad students and post-docs, and students are going back and forth during recess too. They are dependent on these buses.”
